Greeting the Millennium (Poem)

A CENTURY BORN OUT OF WISHFULNESS
By: A. Moneim Khalifa

Translated from Arabic by Dr. Ahmed Yagi
(Poem written in January 2000 greeting the new Century and the new Millennium)

A century born out of wishfulness… a herald..a presage of fortune and felicity…
Came with bloom…jubilant as spring of life flaunting beauty…
Teeming with knowledge and culture… and excellence in every technicality…
Pinnacle of civilization and thought…advocate of man in every category…
Behold...my country bestows on you poems and sublime tunes…of every measure and melody…
Soaring is tone of the rebec in delightful warbling…with the singer chanting mellifluously…
Saluting you are rainy clouds…of every cluster & nimbus raining torrentially…

* * * * * *
Infants as we were and so was history then…we carried it frail compounded in our frailty…
Shone stars…meteor lit in nights dark and pitchy…
Towered in every corner… a banner of cordiality and mercy and equity…
Prevailed in our land splendid peace…and we thrived sheltered by peace & security…
And paradise descendant flows…with boon without favor..bountifully…
So in glittering river was silver…and so Eden on banks was seemly…

* * * * * *

Who could have snared the albatross…that amid copious water the sailor stayed thirsty…
Who could have inequitably put off the beacon…and it leads the distant alien and draws closely…
Who could have fettered the feet that we became…captives on way to prison after running freely…
Who could have kindled the great sedition… for the ruin of national in tranquility…
Who could have omitted tolerance in us… for dissention to prevail and imputation to rise unjustly…

* * * * * *

The Phoenix will one day rise…and we'll shake ashes off somnolent yielding ashy…
And the wind of growth will blow with opulence… for every ark and ship a jubilee…
The arc of sky we'll cover with light… by the glow of our resolve with resiliency…
Kindness for kindness we administer fairness…and eye for an eye we uphold chastisement fairly…
Progressing will be the caravans of knowledge & enlightenment…towards a Sudan we aspire to mindfully…

* * * * * *


Piankhi that sempiternal is an emblem of glory.. no question or gainsay…
Still igniting resolve in selves to build.. is that Merowian lineaments lofty…
Still among us the great Imam.. revolutionary charismatic renewing the century…
And the valiant sacrifice in "Karari" and "Shikan" is still endowing enrichment and prosperity…
And a fluttering flag still embracing the conscience of the free is an emblem for religious rally…
And Ali and company eternal in heaven.. are still awakening wish fullness lively…
Such is love that eases grim afflictions…notwithstanding it is not easy…

* * * * * *

Adorned with pride…my homeland is a sword.. a shield and fortress for me…
Firmly rooted in glory…my homeland is an iris and vision for me…
From your love river we drank…and sipped from every goblet & vessel tipsy…
We'll continue to shake your stem and will reap…homeland of generosity…
Out of bountiful donation and plentiful offering…a river is available unsparingly…
And proudly we will flaunt on your anniversary day…singing favorite poems joyfully…
Rhymes unlike rhymes…mesmerizing tunes.. chanting of jinni…

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